SOC202H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Johann Gottfried Herder, Clifford Geertz, Wonder Bread
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Soc202 cultures and societies in a changing world, 4th edition. In an urban mixed-race neighborhood, sociologist elijah anderson (1990) observes casual street encounters in which african americans appear uncomfortable when they pass caucasians walking their dogs. In the working-class black subculture, dogs does not mean dogs in the house, but usually connotes dogs tied up outside, guarding the backyard, biting trespassers bent on trouble. When sociologists talk about culture, richard peterson (1979) observed, they usually mean one of four things: norms, values, beliefs, or expressive symbols. Norms are the way people behave in a given society, values are what they hold dear, beliefs are how they think the universe operates, and expressive symbols are representations, often of social norms, values, and beliefs themselves. In the last decades of the twentieth century, sociologists added a fifth item to the list: practices. This recent view describes people"s behavior patterns, not necessarily connected to any particular values or beliefs.
